We are all part of this
What 40 years inside the fashion industry taught Simon Platts, and what it taught me
In today’s reflection, I want to talk about blame, and about the moment I realised I had been holding it the wrong way round.
I met Simon Platts in 2023, at the Blue Earth Summit in Bristol. The company I worked for at the time sent me there to represent them. He was on stage. I have followed what he does ever since.
I want to say something about that event before I get to Simon, because I have been thinking about it all week.
I walked into a room full of people who had poured their souls into making a positive impact. Outdoor lovers. Runners, surfers, climbers, people who spend their lives outside and have therefore watched what is happening to the outside. Nobody there was performing concern. They were talking about what each one of us can actually do, and then going and doing it.
I am grateful to Simon for the conversation we just had. I am also grateful to the company I worked for then, because they trusted me to go and represent them, and that trust is the only reason I was in that room at all. You never know which door someone opens for you is the one that matters.
Now to Simon.
He spent 40 years inside fashion and textiles. He started on a shop floor at Next in 1985 and stayed nearly 20 years. Then almost 10 at ASOS, leading responsible sourcing and ESG. In 2023 he left.
I went into our conversation expecting a story about the industry. What I got was a story about us.
What stayed with me
Blame is the wrong question. In almost every conversation about fashion, someone asks who is at fault. The brands. The factories. The shareholders. The shopper who bought the five euro t-shirt. We pass it around the table until it lands somewhere far enough away from ourselves.
Simon does not play that game. He is blunt about what the industry has to fix, and after four decades inside it he has earned the right to be blunt. He said the onus is on the industry, and he meant it. But he also refuses to let the rest of us stand outside a thing we are already standing inside.
We are all part of this. Not equally. But all of us.
Progress, not perfection. This was his phrase and it is the most useful thing in the whole episode. You do not have to become a different person by Monday. You ask simple questions before you buy. Do I need this. Will I wear it. Where did it come from. Could I borrow it, or buy it second hand, or wear the one I already own.
None of that is dramatic. That is exactly why it works. One thought. Then one decision. Then one small thing.
Nothing is a given. Before he left ASOS, Simon spent a night in a hospital bed. He called it a little health wobble, said all is fine now, and moved on quickly, the way people do when they do not want to make a thing heavier than it needs to be. But he told me what went through his head that night.
Nothing’s a given. I can’t faff around for the next 20 or 30 years, however long I’m given on this planet.
So he left. Not to retire. To do more.
My reflections
Halfway through our conversation I stopped and corrected myself out loud. I had introduced this as a reinvention story. It is not. Simon did not start over. He took 40 years of knowing exactly what he was doing and stopped renting it to one company. That is not rebuilding. That is finally using all of it.
And I liked him. I liked his passion and his wisdom and how little interest he had in sounding impressive. It reminded me of something I keep relearning: people who share your values tend to find each other. Not because they are looking. Because they are pointed the same way.
We are living in a time when contributing is not optional any more. If we want our children and the generations after them to still have green forests and oceans and glaciers, then it has to happen in each one of our lives, today, in the ordinary decisions nobody is watching us make.
Not because the industry is off the hook. It is not.
But because waiting for someone else to fix it is just another way of waiting.
When I asked Simon my signature question, what it means to catch more green lights, he said do not wait for the big flashing obvious one. The green lights are usually small and off to the side. You will miss them if you are sitting with your eyes shut and your hands behind your back.
The question I’m leaving you with
What is the one small thing you would change? Not the big one. The small one. The one you could do this week without telling anybody.
I’d love to hear. Reply in the comments or reach out. I’m collecting these stories.
It does not cost you anything to share. And sharing is caring!
Until next time, gorgeous: keep moving. Keep questioning. Keep being brave enough to not fit the mold. Your non-linear path isn’t a failure. It’s evidence that you’re paying attention.
And the world needs that.
See you in the next one,
Cris